Ronnie James Dio, 1942-2010
We need to just get this out of the way, because it is the law:
Dio has rocked (echo: rocked) for a long, long time,
Now it’s time for him to pass the torch.
He has songs of wilderbeasts and angels,
He has soared on the wings of a demon.
It’s time to pass the torch,
You’re too old to rock, no more rockin’ for you.
We’re takin’ you to a home,
But we will sing a song about you.
And we will make sure that you’re very well taken care of.
You’ll tell us secrets that you’ve learned. Woah!
Your sauce will mix with ours,
And we’ll make a good goulash baby.
Dio, time to go!
You must give your cape and scepter to me.
And a smaller one for KG.
Go! Go! Dio! Dio!
– Jack Black, Tenacious D, “Dio”
It’s certainly not my earliest memory, but it’s what always comes to mind when I think of Ronnie James Dio. Sometime in the mid-’90s, my friend Tony and I were paging through the newspaper when we saw an ad for Dio playing a local mid-size venue — I think it was the Boar’s Head at the French Market Mall. The ad featured a picture of Dio and by this time he was wearing some kind of poodley hairpiece because this was pre-1998, when it officially became safe for metal singers to brandish baldness and still rock. The funny thing about it was the coyness of Dio’s signature “devil horns” hand gesture, and I say signature because Dio, who died Sunday at age 67, is thought to have invented the damn thing. It was as if he had just sighed and said to the photographer, “Yeah yeah, I know — don’t worry. I’ll break out the 7-10 split.”
“Still satanic after all these years,” Tony said.
Of course, this was at least a baker’s dozen years after Dio made his post-Black Sabbath splash with “Rainbow in the Dark” and “The Last in Line,” and so it was cool at the time to laugh out loud at this kind of goofy, faux-devilish spectacle, but let’s not discount what R.J. Dio meant to power-deprived teenagers in the early ’80s who depended on the visceral high of quasi-operatic shrieking and doom-laden guitar thunder. Of course, we didn’t know that he had been rocking practically as long as there had been rock — he started a band called Ronnie and the Redcaps in 1958 — but Dio essentially provided the template for nearly a quarter-century of metal singing when he announced in 1975, as lead singer of Rainbow, that he was “THE MAAAN ON THE SEEELVUR MOWN-TAAAAN — YEAH!!!” He belonged to the subgenre of metal screamers in which singers like Klaus Meine of the Scorpions, who might have worn Viking helmets on stage in another era (not that this was necessarily frowned upon in 1970s heavy metal), did their best to evoke air raid sirens and strangled cats.
But Dio was especially effective with the Dungeons and Dragons-obsessed segment of the metal constituency because, as his pre-Rainbow band Elf indicated, he looked quite a bit like a denizen of Middle Earth. When people describe someone as “elfin,” it’s usually to evoke someone who looks like they just drifted down a staircase in Rivendell, like Liv Tyler or Taylor Swift or Christy Turlington. At 5’4″, Ronnie James Dio did not look like that kind of elf. He was more like an imp, or “ympe,” because that looks better in Olde English fonts. He looked like what you thought might be hiding under your bed, waiting to steal your socks.
Dio replaced Ozzy Osbourne in Black Sabbath, which in its post-Ozzy years operated as a sort of witness protection program for singers who once worked for Ritchie Blackmore. While purists often derided Dio’s Sabbath period, Dio’s involvement in the band seemed to inspire Tony Iommi — the title track to 1979′s “Heaven and Hell” featured a riff that belongs in the Sabbath pantheon. While Ozzy sounded crazy, Dio sounded like the thing you hire exorcists to eradicate from your rec room. Dirtbag teens, and I use the term affectionately, had their defender.
Yes, Tenacious D made fun of R.J. Dio, but it was not mean-spirited. It was clearly out of love — he appeared in “Tenacious D in the Pick of Destiny” and the D showed up in Dio’s video for “Push.” To the very end, Dio continued to sear faces off with his wail: last year, he reunited with his “Heaven and Hell”/”Mob Rules”/”Live Evil” Sabbath lineup — Iommi, Geezer Butler and Vinny Appice — to release a new album, “The Devil You Know” as Heaven and Hell. These days, with Ozzy occasionally playing with Sabbath, you have to differentiate, you know.
The unfortunate difference with Dio-era Sabbath, beyond the old Beelzebubbish content, was that you aged out of it. Ozzy’s Sabbath is eternal — you can rock “War Pigs” well into the December of your days with a certain amount of dignity. Dio was made for the skinny kid in the early ’80s who got pantsed during dodgeball and needed to feel empowered by the time he got home. So he’d throw the cassette of “Mob Rules” he recorded on KMOD’s “Ultimate Six Pack” on Sunday night into his brick-sized Walkman and rock that thing all the way home on the school bus, flash-frying every demon he could spy from the back seat.
There was nothing cool about Ronnie James Dio. That much is clear. He existed because for those kids, sometimes slaying a dragon was more immediately important than being cool. That could come later.
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Comments
This piece nailed it. I never liked Dio’s music, with the exception of a few songs, but you nailed it.
ronnie james dio was one of the nicest people i have ever had the pleasure to sit down next to.
he always had time for this fan,and many others like me.
my love goes out to wendy and all of ronnies family at this time as we all have lost loved ones.
thanks for the time you had given me ronnie . a friend and a fan. chris
Schlong, you might be missing the point. I’m arguing that there was a place for people who weren’t cool. Sometimes, people get what they need from music, not what everyone thinks they should want.
Richard Lang,
Is it necessary to make fun of the dead? RJD was one of the classiest people to grace this earth. So you “outgrew” his music, or just decided that in his death it would be a good idea to make fun of him. What a disgrace you are to your profession. Have some respect for the dead. I’m sure your mother must have taught you as a small child that if you have nothing nice to say, keep your mouth shut.
“Schlong, you might be missing the point. I’m arguing that there was a place for people who weren’t cool. Sometimes, people get what they need from music, not what everyone thinks they should want.”
If that really was your intention. It really did not come off that way. Reading it, I felt like you were writing off Dio and his fans. Rereading it again, I can kind of see where you’re coming from, but it still comes off as just mean. Even simple things like putting “cool” in quotation marks (like so) would have shown some solidarity. The way it is, it’s hard for a Sabbath/Dio fan to read this and not feel belittled, even with your note.
This is so drastically misinformed, it’s really tough to hold it against the author – He clearly has no real roots in the genre. (“These days” Ozzy playing with Sabbath has to be differentiated, but the last “these days” was 5 years ago. C’mon.) Even people who were not Dio fans per se have the ability to respect his talent and legions of voracious supporters if they have the ability to be an objective observer. I too was not a Dio fan outside of Sabbath and Rainbow until a few years ago, but never had reason to slam him – And neither does this guy. Insulting this guy would be like throwing stones at a person with cerebral palsy.
As countless others have said, RJD is easily one of the most beloved performers of hard rock and heavy metal, has been active since long before its inception, helped to define the very archetype of it, and will continue to be an inspiration to millions. But even moreso, for those lucky enough to have known him, he was a genuinely kind and loving soul.
God Bless Ronnie James Dio.
This article is garbage.
Obviously Dio isn’t your thing. That’s fine. I don’t see any articles you made about him when he was alive, so I can assume you didn’t care too much for him. Now, he dies, and you rush right to the computer and create this…it seems to me that if you didn’t care when he was alive, you shouldn’t care too much now. So, I’m confused…why even write this?
Now here’s my opinion…because everyone has one.
I think you’re a hipster-doofus that likes attention. Let’s face it, no one beside your mom and three cats care if you stuck to writing about whatever avant-garde, techno music you normally listen to. So, instead, you go about slagging off a guy, who by all accounts I’ve seen was one of the nicest people in the music business and influenced many other musicians, right after he dies. That’s classy. And hell, you didn’t bother to stop there, you also decided to marginalize all his fans (and metal fans in general) as well. Again…classy. On the upside, this is the most traffic you’ll ever get to your blog…because let’s face it, no one gives a shit about “Neutral Milk Hotel”.
If that wasn’t your attention with the above article, then you really suck as a writer. If that was your attention (and I truly believe it was, despite what you said already in the comments), then I feel sorry for you. Obviously you have no dignity or respect for the dead. I hope someday one of your favorite musician bites it, and someone writes something slagging him off, and then maybe you’ll understand.
The anonymity of the computer must also be nice too, because if you ever approached any of those “skinny kids in the early ’80s who got pantsed during dodgeball” and marginalized them to their face as you did in the above article, they would probably rip your thick-framed hipster glasses off your shit-eating grin face and stuff them down your throat. Not that we’ll ever find out unfortunately, because you’re a coward who only writes stuff to be edgy and writes it when a person is dead and can’t defend themselves.
I think that covers it. Maybe for your next article you can write something praising the Westboro Baptist Church. They seem to be equally as informed about Dio as you are.
Just some fucking idiot indie rocker.
Just ignore him guys.
Inb4 he replies.
R.I.P. Dio, one of the greatest singers in music, let alone metal.
To the “author”: I will make this very simple for your simple mind. Okay? I’m 39 years-old. I have two master’s degrees. I am well-educated. I am a professional. I am mature. I am a DAMNED GOOD, RESPONSIBLE FATHER to my two young daughters. I am a musician. I am a rock/metal musician first and foremost; I’m trained. I know music theory; I know how to read music. I enjoy classical music, Jazz, and even some “Pop” music. But HEAVY METAL was/is/and always will be my favorite. Ronnie James Dio was METAL! I loved Ronnie James Dio. I still love and still listen to Ronnie James Dio. You don’t outgrow any kind of music; maybe you don’t care for it or don’t consider it “cool”; but Ronnie James Dio is a MUSICIAN of great talent and could musically (and “ROCKINGLY”)kick the asses of these skinny pants wearing, hipster, Hot Topic, talentless “indie” “rockers” even on his Death Bed at the age of 67 1/2!!!! You, are a F-ing moron. Ronnie James Dio is cooler than you or your pansy bands ever will be. This article sucks. I usually do not subvert to such sophomoric terms as “pansy,” “moron,” and “suck”; however, this piece of rubbish that you pass off a an “article” deserves nothing better.
Joel P. Sero
Dio is/was a better singer and showman/performer then Ozzy will ever be. Ozzy has to read off of cue cards because he is spent. Dio never did. His voice was great until the end. Lets see ozzy or anyone else for that matter do that. He was a naturally gifted and smart individual. You say Ozzy Sabbath is eternal so is Dio sabbath or anything Dio for that matter. All Ozzy did was bash Dio in the press every chance he got and Dio never did anything to him but give him credit. Then Your Ozzy and Ritchie Blackmore say nice things about him after he dies, not before. Bunch of Wusses they are. I have no respect for them . While everyone is entitled to free speech I disagree with what you wrote.
“Still Satanic after all these years”
“Beelzebubish content”
Are you aware that Ronnie was an atheist? Are you aware that the so-called “devil horns” actually have nothing to do with the devil but actually derive from the malochio in the position to ward off the evil eye? Are you aware that Dio had no “Beelzebubish content”?
Take down these comments, sir. They are written under false names that compromise the integrity of those persons whom the writer (assuming it is just one) is impersonating. It is illegal.
Very insightful and funny article. Ronnie was “cool” to the masses at one time; but then “cool” to his fans. Thank you for a great article.
Wow. Great piece.